In this exclusive report, AFP correspondent Michael
Collins Piper stands up for free speech by once again exposing a
long-standing scheme by foreign and domestic pressure groups to
muzzle U.S. college professors, who are outspoken critics of American
foreign policy in the Middle East.

A
long-standing scheme instigated by the Israeli lobby to censor American
university professors who are critical of unqualified U.S. support
for Israel has once again reared its ugly head on. Capitol Hill.
Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio), joined by 13 of his colleagues —
nine Republicans and four Democrats — has introduced a measure
that will set up a "thought control" mechanism to satisfy
Israeli lobby concerns about growing opposition to Israel on American
campuses.

Tiberi's bill, numbered H.R. 509, is nothing more than a revamped
version of an earlier controversial measure, H.R. 3077, which died
in a previous Congress as a result of widespread opposition, much
of it generated by news reports first published in American
Free Press and then widely circulated via the Internet
throughout the American academic community.

H.R. 509, which is innocuously entitled "To
amend and extend Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965,"
would set up a federal review board in the U.S. Department of Education
designed to curtail academic dissent against U.S. foreign policy,
particularly in the realm of American policy in the Middle East.

The pro-Israel lobby, represented by groups such
as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith, the Zionist
Organization of America, the American Jewish Committee, the American
Jewish Congress, and Hillel — among others — has time
and time again complained in a variety of venues about the fact
that American universities receiving federal funding for international
studies programs have included professors who have been allegedly
"anti-American, anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish and pro- Palestinian."

Now, Tiberi's measure is designed to satisfy the Israeli lobby's
demand that federal controls be established to censor such points
of view on campuses that receive federal funding.

There is little in the legislation that makes the political and
ideological intent (and origins) of the bill blatantly obvious.
Indeed the language of the bill — like, much congressional
legislation — is draped in bureaucratic euphemisms disguising
the actual agenda at work. But any serious inquiry into the history
of such legislation demonstrates that it is the brainchild of the
Israeli pressure groups.

And while the bill's sponsor, Tiberi, has been quite open in touting
his legislation, there has been little — if any — news
coverage of the proposal outside news alerts issued by the Jewish
Telegraph Agency (JTA), which describes itself as "an international
news service that provides up-to-the minute reports, analysis pieces
and features on events and issues of concern to the Jewish people."
As such, JTA's reportage on the Tiberi proposal has largely been
publicized in Jewish community newspapers across the United States
and presumably around the world.

One JTA report on Tiberi's bill notes that supporters of the bill
say "universities often promote anti-American and anti-Israel
biases and do not merit funds that were intended to serve American
interests," but admits that "many academics worry that
restrictions will violate academic freedoms."

Tiberi claims, in grand language, that, if approved,
his measure will strengthen international and graduate programs
in higher education, saying that America's competitiveness and security
needs are linked to a better understanding of other nations and
cultures; that all of this, taken together, will help defend America
in a dangerous post-9-11 world.

According to a press release room the U.S. House
Education and Workforce Committee, dated June 16, 2005, chaired
by the bill's cosponsor, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio): "The bill
establishes an International Education Advisory Board to increase
accountability by providing advice and recommendations to the secretary
of education and the Congress, on international education issues
for higher education."

The press release goes on to make the claim that Tiberi's legislation
"expressly prohibits the board room influencing curriculum,
disseminating regulations, or awarding grants." But a review
by AFP of the legislation has found no such prohibitions, despite
the claim made in the press release, which was generated by Boehner's
committee office.

Note, too, that one of the cosponsors is Hoekstra, who was the sponsor
of the similarly intended H.R 3077, a bill initially inspired by
an even earlier proposal by two Republican senators, Rick Santorum
(Pa.) and Sam Brownback (Kan).

After American Free Press learned of the
scheme by Santorum and Brownback and focused on their intention
of introducing so-called "ideological diversity" legislation
designed to curtail criticism of Israel on American college campuses,
the resulting negative publicity forced the duo to back off.

Angry that the scheme had been derailed, the New York-based Jewish
Week published a story about the controversy generated
by AFP's reportage, saying AFP's revelation of the Santorum-Brownback
scheme was "a dangerous urban legend; deliberate disinformation
at worst," concocted by "several leading conspiracy theorists
and Holocaust Revisionists," which had become "an article
of faith throughout the Arab world and in some U.S. left-wing circles."

In fact, the first and little-noticed report about the Santorum-Brownback
scheme, which later spawned H.R. 3077 and now H.R. 509, was first
mentioned on April 15, 2003, in the small-circulation New
York Sun, a stridently pro-Israel "neo-conservative"
daily published in Manhattan. That report revealed that the two
senators and several of their colleagues had discussed such legislation
in the company of representatives of a number of powerful pro-Israel
organizations at a private meeting on Capitol Hill.

Those who are concerned about freedom of speech on the campus would
be wise to contact their representatives in Congress and urge that
Tiberi's H.R. 509 be put to rest once and for all.

The U.S. Congress switchboard can be reached at: (202) 224-3121.
Operators will be able to connect callers to their own representatives.

Illustration depicting a cartoon
of a demonstrator pitching a pie in the face of a speaker
standing behind a lecturn labled "Campus Free Speech
Symposium" with the caption "Rep. Patrick Tiberi
(R-Ohio), joined by 13 of colleagues — nine Republicans
and four Democrats — has introduced a measure that will
set up a `thought control' mechanism to safisfy Israeli lobby
concerns about growing opposition to Israel on campuses."